Portable electronics equipment, such as radios, cellular and cordless telephones, pagers and the like, are becoming increasingly popular. In many instances it is desirable to provide apparatus on the equipment to supply the operator with visual messages that include graphics and printed information as well as a means to access and manipulate such messages. The problem is that prior art apparatus providing these functions require relatively high electrical power and require a great amount of area to be sufficiently large to produce useful and visually perceivable information.
In the prior art, for example, it is common to provide visual apparatus utilizing liquid crystals, directly viewed light emitting diodes, etc. These produce very large and cumbersome displays that greatly increase the size of the receiver and require relatively large amounts of power.
Apparatus incorporating a miniature virtual image, which solves most of the problems mentioned above, is disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,198, entitled "WAVEGUIDE VIRTUAL IMAGE DISPLAY", issued Jun. 29, 1993. Typically, the products in which the miniature virtual image display is incorporated are small handheld devices.
Typically, in portable electronics equipment, such as radios, cellular and cordless telephones, pagers and the like, there exists a small display which illustrates the number being dialed or the function being programmed. Greater capabilities in terms of displayed information can be achieved by adding an additional display or displays to the portable electronics equipment. Of concern is the positioning of these additional displays, the means for viewing the additional display, and the associated display electronics.
Therefore, there exists a need to provide for a display carrier that has housed therein a virtual image display. The virtual image display is capable of binocular viewing. The detachable display carrier is fabricated to detachably mount to a portable electronic device.
Accordingly, it is a purpose of the present invention to provide for a display carrier including a virtual image display housed in the display carrier, the display carrier utilized in conjunction with an existing portable electronic device.
It is also a purpose of the present invention to provide for binocular viewing of the virtual image display utilized in conjunction with an existing portable electronic device.
It is a further purpose of the present invention to provide for a new and improved display carrier including a virtual image display with binocular viewing, which enables the virtual image display and thus data contained within the portable electronic device to be accessed and thus viewable by the user with increased visual imaging for the user.
It is a still further purpose of the present invention to provide for a new and improved display carrier including a virtual image display, which has provided moveable or changeable optics to provide for an interchangeable direct view display.